025 MDB Rising: Less Doing, More Being (and Intentional Hiring) with Radiah Rhodes

Radiah: We're moving into that from seeking to surrendering as a business is where I'd say we are, and that's magic because we can see it happening. There's not a doubt. We had to move through a lot of doubt like, can we really do this? The market is really saturated. We're this company of black women who are not necessarily known – although we are the most effective, efficient, and high performing people on the planet if you ask me, let me tell you, we got some tricks up our sleeves about how people can be efficient and effective beyond the average person. So that's a new space and we question like, will people acknowledge and recognize our prowess? And now we're like, oh yeah, it's waiting for us.

Welcome to The Million Dollar Badass Podcast. I'm your host, Rachel Rodgers, wife, mother to four children, lover of Beyoncé, coffee drinker, and afro wearer, and I just happen to be the CEO of a seven-figure business. I am on a mission to help every woman I meet become a millionaire. If you want to make more money, you are in the right place. Let's get it going.

Rachel: Hello friends and welcome to The Million Dollar Badass Podcast. I'm so excited to be here with one of my favorite people and an amazing client, Radiah Rhodes. I'm so glad you're here, Radiah.

Radiah: Hey Rachel, I'm excited to be here. Super happy to be here.

Rachel: So tell us a little bit – before we started recording we were talking about Be Printing. What is Be Printing?

Radiah: Be Printing is blueprinting who you're being. So our mantra is being is the new doing. Most of us are out here as we say, doing too much. And action is necessary. I'm a total implementer and doer, but the busy action is not necessary. All of that action that we do to avoid the real stuff, that moves you forward. So Be Printing is the process that we take you through in a super profound 15-minute exercises. A series of nine of them that actually allow you to map out how you're showing up and then map out a new way to show up that's going to get you laser fast to the results you really want, and these are for big goals, for great goals you have for who you want to become and what things you really want to massively shift in your life.

Rachel: I love that so much. Blueprinting for being. I love that. And I love your motto, being is the new doing. That's so amazing, and where did you learn how to do this? How did you figure out how to do this stuff? And one thing I want to say too is I think this is so important for reaching goals. We're so numbers driven and I'm a very analytical person so I love to just like, tell me what the numbers are, tell me the moves I got to make, just let me make a list, let me just check it off.

And a lot of times, the things that are getting in the way of our growth is not the shit that you can check off a list. It's what's going on in our brains and just overwhelming ourselves and of course we're not going to perform at our highest level the way that we live and the way that we treat ourselves. So I just love that you've kind of identified that, especially as a black woman because we've talked about how so many coaches and especially life coaches are white women and a black woman life coaches too, and I feel that a lot of black women need life coaches that understand their experience, that can identify with their experience, which I love. So there's so much there to unpack, but tell me, how did you figure out how to create this? What inspired you to create Be Printing?

Radiah: I mean, the first thing was I was in my own crisis and my father asked me the question, who are you over coffee one day and I didn't have an answer. And I'm the planner, I'm a certified project manager, I'm a corporate – I was a corporate exec. So I had all this stuff mapped out and planned, what I wanted to do, why I wanted to do it, and I always say that as a black woman, I'm never heard before why. There's so many reasons why I put…

Rachel: Hello, hello.

Radiah: So I had my why and I had my what and all of that, but I did not know who I was. I hadn't thought about that at a deep level, and in a world where you're told who you are, period, and then particularly as a black woman, told that you're at the lowest on the totem pole by society and beauty standards and all of that, it was super important for me to give that some real thought and to be in command of that for myself.

So when my father asked me the question, I actually didn't have an answer, and he was like well, go ahead and think about it and tell me, and he wouldn’t even give me a hint. I kept saying well, how do you want me to answer that? Or what do you mean? Just call me later. So what actually came to me was life-changing love and for me as an engineer, I was like, what is that exactly?

And when I thought about that, I started to declare it. I literally went into an Excel spreadsheet and started to type out who I am as a woman whose connection with my highest power is the greatest thing in my life, who I am as a partner that's passionate about my relationship, my husband, I'm a nurturer for my children, and I just kept defining who I was and that then was the basis for me to really uncover what I wanted and why I wanted it. And so it just really became part of my own process and it worked. I'd put it in one page little spreadsheet and then three months later I looked at it and I was like, oh my god, I have really transformed who I am, and so let me do this again. Let me update it and then three months later I was like – and my life completely shifted.

And I called my good friend, Dr. Roni who's a transformational thought leader and PhD in education and all that, and I said I got something here, take a look at it, and we mapped out this process called Be Printing. And it just has become something that has changed hundreds of lives, including ours.

Rachel: I love it so much. That's so awesome, and I think that's really important, especially you were a corporate exec at the time and so you're like, busy and you got kids, you got a home to take care of, you have a spouse. There's so much to manage. It's like, when is there time in the day to unpack who you are or who you want to be, or really stop and say is this the life that I want for myself? Am I showing up the way that I want to be showing up? Am I stepping into my full greatness? We go out there, especially as black women and just get beat up by the world, and then we wake up and do it again. That shit is bullshit.

Radiah: And we were so important to your point because it was at that time about being busy and one of the most magical pieces was we created this process and it's so simple. It doesn't take that much time because we don't take the time. We don't take the time to just sit with ourselves and be with ourselves, and I had gotten to the point where I was so low with all of the demands that were on me and how I was feeling about my life at the time that I had no choice but to take the time. And we turned that into something that actually doesn't take a lot of time and that you do one a quarterly basis deliberately, so that you don't have to wait for a crisis to be able to determine who you are and what you want.

Rachel: I love that. And so you do this yourself now continually?

Radiah: I have been since 2011, 2010. On a quarterly basis. Every three months I sit down and I start with step one and I always work myself through sometimes because I'm a master at it I want to skip, and then I always reset and say go, step one, step two, all the way to step nine.

Rachel: Yes, work the process. I love it and I love that you drink your own Kool-Aid because I think that's really important.

Radiah: Yeah, it is super important. Get the world to come with me.

Rachel: Exactly. So tell us what your company does and also what is your job title? Who are you and what do you do?

Radiah: So Evók, we are a wellbeing company and we mean that. The emphasis is on being. Being and doing and blueprinting who you're being. So it's not just about health and wellness. It's about really transforming who you are and how you show up so that you can create the kind of success you want in your life. And our mission is really to free up women to transform the world. So we know that this process of Be Printing, what we say is that it puts you in your power paradigm, so you're operating from a place of power and allows you to literally create results because you say so.

You know how people walk into the room like, if the Dalai Lama walks in, he don't have to say a whole lot. Things are going to move, people are going to feel the presence, that's what we're interested in having our women tap into about themselves. And so the way we serve is through executive coaching, through online courses that you can do it yourself with some support through coaching programs and memberships that last a year long, if you want to go through the cycle of quarterly Be Printing, and through certification.

We train other women coaches, aspiring coaches or existing coaches on this methodology so that they can take it out to their clients and get bigger and faster results with them, and we do a lot of corporate work with workshops, private executive coaching there, and speaking.

Rachel: I love it. Awesome. Okay, so what did you want to – when we started working together in January – it was like May 2018. Right before I had a baby. So tell me, where were you at at that time? What did it look like? What did 2018 or early 2018 look like for you and your business? What problem did you want to solve? What challenges were you facing in your business?

Radiah: Yeah, so it was actually exciting. That's when I first really launched my book. I was going on tour, I was doing some additional speaking engagements around my book, Being is the New Doing. And then we were turning that into some programs that we could launch. And funny enough, that year, the first half of the year we didn't sell anything, and I mean like, we weren't making any offers. So we might have had a few clients here and there, but we were not actively marketing our business and selling our products and programs.

And so when I first took Glow Up, which kind of got my whole life together around okay, now I understand how this works. I literally was missing information. I just didn't know how to take what we had created and really turn it into an ongoing business. And so the first half of that year was about getting the structure in place, getting our framework in place. And then when I joined MDB, we got actual strategies, and I started out at a retreat that you were having at that time.

And so we finished that retreat by posting a Facebook ad, like walking through in that session, getting that ad up, and starting to bring people into our Facebook group. And so then I left that retreat and we launched a course, and we made like, $20,000, $25,000 in that first six weeks after that retreat.

Rachel: I love it. I love that so much.

Radiah: Oh my god, I get it. I don't just get to write a book and it's done. No.

Rachel: Yes. So you started and you're an engineer, so you started with the product. You started with what is it that we're creating, what are we going to put out into the world. So you created that product. And then you were like, oh shit, now we got to sell it. And now we have to sell it consistently and oh, like I need people to just come and buy it every day. I don't want to have to hustle and push it and show up somewhere for people to buy it. So yes, and I did that with Small Business Bodyguard. That was probably the only product that I created. I had a time – ever since then, I always sell first, create later.

Radiah: And I learned that too. I learned that, and that first course, we sold it and we had a lot of the materials because we had created a planner and a book and all those things, but we didn't necessarily have each of the lessons mapped out. So we created that as we went along, and it was powerful and significant, and the impact was fantastic. And then we learned how to market it through the webinar and sell it through that and the sales call.

And then I was like okay, how do we sustain this? Because at the time we didn't have a team, and so that was kind of the next journey, but being in MDB really – it kept giving me exactly what we needed to move the business to the next step. First you got to experience and get some results and understand how it works, then you can put a system around it and put a team on it so that you can consistently operate and then scale it. That's what we've been on the journey with.

Rachel: I love it. And I love that you came to the retreat, you immediately implemented, and one of the things that we do at the retreats a lot is we actually get things done at the retreats because I'm kind of anti let's just learn a whole bunch, let's have notes that we're never going to review again. That shit drives me nuts. I can't. So I'm like no, we're going to do this ad, and everybody's like okay yeah, that sounds good, I'll work on that at home. No, get your laptops out, we're going to do this ad right now in this room together. So I love that. And you did it and you implemented and you made $25,000, which is freaking awesome.

Radiah: Yeah, out the gate, like not having a whole lot of information, which is fine, but being willing to implement. And that's what I need. What do we need to do? What do we need to implement? I'm clear on who I am, I'm clear on our mission and what we've got and why, I now need to know what do we need to do.

Rachel: Yes, exactly. Like what is my next move to make things happen. So what things have you implemented over the last – so we've been working together over the last year. What parts of the system have had the biggest impact for you?

Radiah: Yes, so I would say the framework has initially had the biggest impact. So getting our materials into a framework that allows us to speak about it clearly and keep repeating what we're speaking about so people start to internalize it and are attracted to us, being able to run the programs with no sweat at all, it's what we love to do and everything's so organized. So that I think has served us most. We implemented the Facebook ad and the Facebook group, and that has brought us an audience to be able to really test things out, to get clients. It's great for understanding exactly what our clients are going through and what solutions we need to provide that are going to make a difference for them, and then just fostering a community and continuing to build an audience and a community of clients and prospective clients that we can serve. So that has been fantastic.

Building a team, we started to implement that and I have to say, I shortcut the hiring process that you give us and it bit me. It completely bit me. I spent some months and some money cleaning up after not following that to a T. But that hurt, so that's what we're implementing now.

Rachel: Yes, I love that. And I love that you just take action and you keep moving forward. One of the things that I think is so special about you is that even when you don't have 100% clarity, even if you – to use a Martin Luther King quote, can't see the whole staircase, you always take the first step and you're just like, whatever, I'll figure it out as I go. And I think that that is the marker of a really successful entrepreneur because you just have to be willing to accept uncertainty.

Radiah: That's huge.

Rachel: Yeah, we're not going to know how this is going to work out. Sometimes people come to me and they're like, so tell me is this going to work if I do x, y, z? And I'm like, it should, it's worked for all my other clients, but it may not work exactly the same every time, I can't guarantee how much money you're going to make. I can't guarantee your results unfortunately because I don't have a crystal ball. And we're dealing with human beings, and how are they going to respond to our stuff? We don't know. We have to put it out there to find out. But I just love that you always – I think the way that I would characterize it is that you always just keep wrestling, and I think that is really what entrepreneurship is. You just keep wrestling with it until you get it to where you want it to be.

Radiah: That's it, and I had to learn that because you know, I kept thinking oh, we don't have the messaging right, and I would want to theorize and think about – try to figure it out in my head, and that's the number one thing our clients say. I'm trying to figure it out. I just need to figure it out. And we can. We're intelligent, we're brilliant, and we are consistent. So we will. But it's not efficient. And so I really had to learn to be okay with uncertainty and that the best answer I'm going to get is by trying it and seeing what happens, and I'll survive it so then I can adjust and to stick with it.

Rachel: Yes, I love it. Tell me a little bit about the team because I want to hear about – I think that's something that people always struggle with. Stepping into building a team, which is something that you've always been very open to. I feel like you're an entrepreneur that's like, I want a team, whereas so many are like, I just want to be solo-preneur forever, I'm scared to have to pay other people money.

Radiah: That broke me because I'm like, come on, let's roll. So I started out with my two partners, Dr. Roni Ellington and Tawana Bhagwat and it's funny because people told me all along the way like, you don't need to have more people, you can just do this yourself. And just in my soul, it was like nope, these are my people and we're going to build this and we're going to roll. And so that has been phenomenal because the experience – this is not for the faint of heart. You hear people say that all the time. That's absolutely true. Entrepreneurship is not for the faint of heart.

And so having two people that are just down and brilliant and we rock with each other, that has been I think what allows me to just keep going and be willing to try it again or try something new. So from that perspective, we have the three of us as partners in the business, and then we said okay well now we need to branch out, and what we had to learn, everybody's read The Big Leap and we talk about the zone of genius, that because there were the three of us and we were growing quickly, we were all outside of our zone of geniuses. In the zone of incompetence…

Rachel: Zone of competence. Anywhere but zone of genius.

Radiah: Yeah. So stretching, and that's what we had to then – we were all hands on deck and really having to kind of pry ourselves and detach and go okay, what's really your genius, what's my genius, and then what do we need to hire for? And so got clear about that towards the end of last year, so we started to hire. And it was around marketing because we know that that's a big gap for us, and we just didn't have success because we didn't follow the hiring process.

Rachel: Yeah, so you want to hire very slowly and fire fast. And it's not an easy thing because you want to hire immediately and then what we do is we hire quickly and we fire very slowly. Exact opposite. Costs you a lot of money to do it that way. Absolutely.

Radiah: So we started to hire and we just – it didn't work out. We had people that were overlapping with what our zone of genius was, everybody wants to be a strategist and we needed to hire more executors. I could pick out several different things that you know, you point out in the process of why it's laid out the way it is that we didn't do and so we ended up having people just like us who had to take a lot of direction, even after training. And we're not executors, so that didn't work.

So we had to work on that, and now we're re-approaching, and what I tell myself every time when I get into that, when I hire immediately is you're doing without it now, so you'll be okay. You're fine today, do what you need to do to hire and bring the right person on and then build that team. And you told me this at our last retreat, you said well, you've been hiring help. You haven't been building a team. And that was huge. I was like, you're exactly right, and it takes time and a different mindset and a different approach to build a team than it does to just hire people to help you and then have this disjointed, rocky way of operating.

Rachel: Absolutely. It's interesting because I feel like a lot of people want to get people to – so first of all, this is an opportunity to talk about one of my pet peeves, which drives me nuts every day on Facebook is when people post hey guys, I'm looking for someone who could answer emails and who could handle my schedule and maybe help out with some other stuff. Know anyone? I'm like, that is not how you hire someone. Please stop it right now.

I literally – I just want to yell at everyone who's doing that like, stop it. You do not just – you're not looking for like a good restaurant. You're looking for someone who you're going to pay on a weekly basis to be in your team. It's going to take more than just like hey, do you know anyone who could answer emails? Yeah I do, but are they aligned with your company values? Can they do more than answer emails? What else can they do? How many hours do you need them? Have you thought about any of this? Well maybe think about that first before you run to Facebook and post like, know anybody?

That shit, I swear, I have to stop myself from commenting but anyway, yes, following a process and also too, not just hiring people that just take tasks off of our list where we're like, do this and they do it. And then we're like, do this other thing and then they do it, and we're like, do this other thing and before you know it, we're like, fuck, I could have did all this myself, I'm going to talk to you all day about doing it. Like, I need somebody who can have a system, implement, see problems, get them done. I don't want to do all the thinking for you where you just kind of check tasks off.

And I think most of the people that we're hiring have greater skills. We need to spot talent. That is one of the things that we need to learn to figure out as entrepreneurs. And I feel like the sooner you start working on that, the sooner you are going to build that quality team and the sooner you get to step into that CEO role more, which is only going to grow your business.

Radiah: And that is really, I mean, that's when the scale happens. The scaling is not going to happen – I mean, in some few cases, I'm sure when there's just a simple physical product or a digital or something like that, but if you're providing a service especially, you have a community to serve, the scaling is going to happen when you build a team, and that is I think the trickiest part. And we do want to hire for skills and I definitely was in the camp of working with people that were willing to take the check boxes off my list, but not really going to take the initiative and thrive, to really being able to recognize people's energy.

I'm an energy coach and getting that aligned from the beginning is critical. Like, are you a fit with the energy of this team and where we're resonating and what the goals are? Do you subscribe to the same goals and mission we have? Are you out for these goals like we're out for these goals? Not just for getting the work done.

Rachel: Yes, you want people who are all in and you also want them to own their role. Like, I need you to own this space. I need you to feel responsible for this inbox. You know what I mean? I need you to feel responsible for how this event gets pulled off or whether this marketing goes out today or not.

Radiah: Exactly.

Rachel: So that's key, and the same thing with marketing because I think that's the other place that a lot of entrepreneurs find when you are at around six figures or just over six figures when we started working together, and I feel like a lot of entrepreneurs who are in that space are just over six figures, and you're like okay, so how do we get another six figures and another and another? How do we keep scaling and growing by hundreds of thousands?

And part of it is we can't have our marketing always be a push. We can't be like, we need some money so let's roll out a campaign, let's do a big ass launch and exhaust ourselves and exhaust all of our resources and make a bunch of money. Great, we did that, okay, great. Now how are we going to get more money to come in? What we need is recurring revenue on a regular basis and we need recurring marketing systems that just work on a daily basis to bring in business. That's what we're looking for.

Radiah: And that's the phase we're in now where we've been automating some pieces, you know I love a good map. I always say it's just a math equation to that next level. It is. It's numbers. It's here's how much you want to make, here's the price points you're operating at, here's how many clients you need to be able to deliver that, here's how many leads you need to get to convert at these rates. It's a math equation now.

Rachel: It is a math equation. I love it. I totally agree, and I think sometimes people get real esoteric and I'm like, let's just look at the numbers. Can we just look at the data? That's important too. Yes, emotions and feelings are important, but also let's not ignore the data. Let's do both.

Radiah: Yes, exactly. And I – that has been another lesson for me. This really pulling the emotion out, I'm pretty matter of fact about a lot of things, but I was realizing how much emotion I actually had in the operating and running of the business that I wasn't aware of. And so that has shown up in some great ways that's freed me up completely because I can just say well, let's go to the numbers. This ad got in front of this many people and it brought this many people to watch it and they clicked through and so on and so forth, and now let's tweak.

And so when I first did that though, we went from kind of the manual marketing processes that brought in the money and it was very successful and there were these super high conversion rates, and then we said okay, let's go to the automated version, and the automated version was like – when is the last time I've seen these kind of numbers for something that I put my effort into, you know?

Rachel: Yeah, like I don't like getting Ds.

Radiah: No.

Rachel: I don't get Ds. I get As, okay?

Radiah: Listen, I got a little emotional and I was like, oh, throw the whole thing away. And Cally was like, let me see the numbers, and then you said it too and I said okay. So I posted the numbers in the group, which was like – so it was like okay, here's where people fell off, let's go handle that. But it took so much weight off of me to just go back to the numbers and get out of my own emotions and clear that out the way.

And I've had to learn some business language. It's one thing to be in corporate. I know the corporate speak. But to be in the entrepreneurial language and that's a different language, and to learn how to take my emotions and language them in the numbers and go okay, I've now addressed the concern I had. It's not that nobody loves your business and it's terrible. It's you don't have a sales process.

Rachel: Exactly. When you take the emotion out of it – because otherwise we're like, I'm a failure, this is over, I'm going to file bankruptcy. We get so incredibly dramatic and it's like, that didn't quite work the way that you wanted to. You probably need to tweak it. It's the simplest thing and we're like, throwing ourselves on…

Radiah: Like we have to rework the whole program, oh no, your registration page was missing some key components, so update that and run it again.

Rachel: Exactly. And that's the thing that you've got to be in it for the test and tweak. You've got to be willing to test and tweak, and especially with anything – any kind of automated marketing, you've got to put it out there and it may not work perfectly the first time, so you've got to like, oh, let me just tweak it this way and let me just tweak it this way. And that is, a lot of times, uber annoying. I know I hate it. I'm like, just work the first time.

Radiah: I thought about everything, I consulted with – you know, the MO is to like, the perfectionist MO. Put everything into it, make it real nice up front, even take a little risk and say okay, let's jump it, and it hits, but in this case, it's a test and tweak every time.

Rachel: Exactly. So tell me how has your being is the new doing motto and policy and way of thinking served you as you've been building this business? When you have a shitty day or you have a day where a project doesn't work the way you want or you have to let go of a team member, how do you kind of keep yourself in a positive space or not be like, alright, I need three days off so I can cry about it?

Radiah: I mean, it's a couple things. I mean, one is we talk about intention. So the being is the new doing is not just an ambiguous mantra, but we measure who you're being, how you're being by intention and we have a scale. And that scale is the thing that allows us to put on blast exactly how you're showing up. And the belief that drives that is it's not what you're doing that actually creates the results. That's part of it, but the biggest part that actually creates the real results is who you're being, where you're coming from.

Rachel: Yes.

Radiah: So because I just come from that place, I stand in who I am with life-changing love, what my purpose is to bring wellbeing into this space. I can always reground myself, and then I can say, I can point out like oh, like this morning I got locked out the house. For a minute I was suffering, and then I could tell the thoughts because I do this quarterly process and we blueprint who you're being, part of that blueprinting is your actual thoughts. Really mapping out the types of thoughts you subscribe to, the emotions that you embody most of the time, the beliefs that you're holding to be true. So I can see it. It's almost like oh, that's not me. This is the suffering intention level. It's just energy. It's not me. And I just shift myself up on the scale and then get back to being about my business.

Rachel: That's right. Exactly. I love that. And tell me about the intention scale. What are some of the things on that scale and how does that work?

Radiah: Yeah, so it goes from negative seven to positive seven, and at the very bottom of the scale is suffering. So you have an experience of your energy, yourself, and then an energy that you're giving off. And so you start at the bottom is suffering, and then you move up from suffering to struggling, when you're resisting truth and you're resisting something, you struggle with it. And then you move up from there to sacrificing, where you're not necessarily resisting it, but you're avoiding something and you're kind of in denial. And so you're sacrificing your gifts for something that you think is a noble cause.

And then the next level up is settling, which is right in the middle of the scale, where you're indifferent or resigned, and you're energetically just kind of like, everything's fine, no, it's fine, it's good, but you're settling. And then you move up from settling to striving, which is a lot of our clients because we're high achievers. We put forth effort and are striving for some goals. But that's really just a wishing and wanting energy when you're striving for something because you don't have it. That's why you're striving for it.

Rachel: And also, I think there's a belief that you think you're not going to get it, that's why you think you have to strive. There's not a confidence in the striving.

Radiah: Exactly, and it's exasperating. So it's okay to have that kind of energy if you have a clear goal and a time, it's time bound, but it's not sustainable. And so we're exhausting ourselves striving for things to no end is when we drop back down the scale actually. And then after striving, you move up to seeking. And so the way you break out of striving is you make requests. Typically, striving is something we're trying to figure it out, we're in our own heads, we're not asking for help. We're just trying to muscle it through.

And so breaking out of that requires you to ask, which puts you in a seeking space. And when you ask and you get the response and you ask powerfully, you then start to build some belief. So your point now, you're like, oh, I believe. This shit about to happen, like okay.

Rachel: Yes, this is possible.

Radiah: Yes, and then you move from seeking up to surrendering, where you realize that this is happening and it's actually happening beyond just my own force and will, that there's a greater team and a greater power that's actually at my aid, that's working for me as well. And then once you're in that space of surrendering, you build a knowing in your spirit. And when you know a thing, I always say, then you're willing to actually become a thing, and at the very top of the scale is sovereignty.

Rachel: First of all, I'm dead. That is so amazing. Seriously, and I just love that you created that. And so I felt an energy shift as you were talking about it. Like when you got to knowing, I was like, ah, yes. That's where we want to be. And even surrendering, and I think especially for black women to just be able to be like, you know what, it's working in my favor. I'm moving in this direction, I'm taking the right steps. Let me just let it unfold. Let me just get out the way and just let it happen. Let me let it be easy because I think we always are looking for – we look for hardship because that's what we're accustomed to, because that's been what's been handed to us is hardship. So we expect everything to be hard and then we kind of – our expectation makes things hard.

Radiah: Absolutely.

Rachel: And so getting out of that and into a place of like, really just surrendering, I think that is so powerful. I love that scale and tell me what it's called again.

Radiah: It's the intention scale. And it's funny because I actually have a coaching certification from a predominantly white run school, but…

Rachel: Well, they all are predominantly white. Every single life coach training that I know of is predominantly white.

Radiah: It is. And this woman was, and it was an excellent training, but what I realized was that they actually have a scale of energy. It's different, but we actually looked one day and said let's map and see. And I was like, the difference is as black women, there are so many layers to our experience, our experience of suffering and struggling and sacrificing.

And so that scale, let's call that the privileged scale was much more like, oh, well you might be a little bit angry, and then you're happy and you're passionate and you're cooperate. And I was like, yeah, that's great but there's some layers to this struggle and suffering that's happening that needs to be unpacked and it needs to be addressed because that's what's really in the way of – I don't care how much of a high achiever you are, that identification with struggling and sacrificing and suffering will undermine your life force. It will undermine your ability to create real massive results.

And we're out here crushing it even though we're coming in at levels of intention. So imagine if we were able to really elevate on that scale to those higher levels. That's easy. And that's why, I mean, I run Evók, I run this business, but I have two other businesses that I'm part of and run and so – and I'm not busy. People are amazed. I laugh. People email me and they're like, what's your schedule? And I'm like well, most afternoons are free and most mornings are free, and then I have to laugh at myself like yeah, my schedule's not full. I have two active children. I have a husband, we run a business together, so it just allows me to be and create so many more results than if I was just in that world of sacrificing and suffering and struggling and doing a whole lot.

Rachel: Yes, I totally agree, and I think sometimes people think that like, oh, I just have to be busy, busy, busy, and I just have to work harder. And I'm like no, in fact, you have to literally take your foot off the gas. You have to chill the fuck out. That's part of what you need to do. And I agree. I know people don't believe that I'm like, I take Fridays off, I have mornings free to go to Pilates. I go to Pilates during work hours. Three times a week without a problem because – I feel like part of that though is also being intentional about your life, not saying – like, part of the not suffering is practical and it's saying no, I can't take that on, no, I'm not going to be responsible for that, no, I'm not going to do everything under the sun.

There's somebody else who could do that. It don't need to be me. How can this be done in a more efficient way? Doesn't have to be hard. So being intentional in that way, you start to build your life in a way that doesn't wear you out and make you miserable.

Radiah: Yes, and we wanted to make intention not another to-do. So people talk about it and they say I set my intentions and what are my intentions, and it's just another way to start doing something else. I set this intention out, I got to do this plan and check these things off and meet my intention. No, what you have to do is really acknowledge where you're coming from. Who are you and where are you coming from as an energetic?

You know people's energy, you know your own energy when you walk into the space and when you pay attention to it. Learning all I have to do really is be responsible for the energy I bring in the space and I allow in the space, and then watch things happen. I intuitively know what action to take that's going to create a result. Now, we also talk about the default, which is there's who you're becoming at this high level of intention, but there's who you've been being in that area that's at a lower level of intention that we call – that's your default way of being. And that is what – it will come up.

Whenever you get scared, whenever you feel a threat, whenever something gets hard, you start behaving in this default way. And so you go up and down the scale at any moment, but it's about recognizing it and then knowing how to shift yourself back to where you want to be.

Rachel: Yes, and the default is kind of like, it's habitual, right? It's what we've been doing all this time so it's easy to drop back into that and to just be like well, I'm tired. I feel like when that comes up for me is when I'm tired. I can tell when I'm worn out, I start just cutting corners or just you know, it's like you start doing things not the right way and not at the higher level that you want to be performing at. So protecting your energy.

This is why being intentional is so important and setting that intention to kind of break those habits. And it happens over time. I feel like it's not instant. What do you think about that and how quickly do you see shifts in some of your clients?

Radiah: So we're pretty quick with it because we put a process to it and we measure it. So in six weeks, people completely transform to a particular area. The first step we call it tell your truth, and they go through a quick assessment process of what's really happening and telling the truth about it and setting what we call is a whole goal. A goal that has tangible results, it has an experience that you want to have, and it also has an impact that you want to create.

And when they see that, we move them through the rest of the process, but in six weeks, they're already like okay, I need a new game. I need a new Be Print. Like, pay increases to new jobs, to financial burdens that they were trying to let go of and release, people have found – they're like, I did everything I said I was going to do and I found a man.

Rachel: I love it.

Radiah: Because we say what you do anywhere, you do everywhere. So even when we focus you on one area so we can move you through that, you see the results everywhere because you're a whole person and you're shifting your whole being, and that's creating a whole new experience in all the areas of your life. It's phenomenal. I love it.

Rachel: It's amazing and I love – that's why I wanted to kind of unpack what you do because I think it's really magical, and I totally agree about what you do one place you do elsewhere. And I think that that's a tip for our listeners right now. If you have an area of confident in your life, how can you bring that confidence into entrepreneurship? How can you bring that into building a business? If you feel like I have less experience with this, that's okay. How can you bring some of that confidence with being a mother if you feel really confident about that, or health and fitness if you feel really confident about that, or whatever areas. Carrying that over so that you can be doing the way you do one thing, the way you do everything.

Radiah: Yeah, and we're the ones that are compartmentalizing that. So the truth is you're a whole person, so if you have confidence, you have confidence. But what we do is shut it down if we're in one environment versus another because we think we have to survive it or we need to be a certain way to make it in whatever that other environment is. So that compartmentalization or that's what we're out here doing. We're out here shutting these parts of ourselves off in certain situations to try and survive it, but you're a whole person. If you have confidence, you have confidence.

Rachel: Exactly.

Radiah: You know, you only don't because you say you don't and that's what we'll do when we are confronted with difficulties and challenges and stuff like that. It's a habit.

Rachel: Yes, for sure. I agree. So let's talk a little bit about so what results have you seen? Where is your business now that you have been making some of these moves, putting the framework in place? Tell us about your main offer that you're sharing with people right now and some of the shifts that you've seen in your business over the last year.

Radiah: So we grew the business, we tripled revenue as we moved through the program. We went from making a few thousand a month to making about 30K a month consistently, month after month. We took a dip, and let me say, and that started the last half of the year because we weren't really doing anything the whole first half of the year. So it was a very quick ramp up and then we were like oh, we got this, and we started to drive it consistently, but it was manual, so then we wanted to make it automated.

And so in that automation, because we had the challenges with the team, we've taken a dip, and so now we are re-approaching to regain our 30K a month and then go from there to scale it. But in the meantime that we're been putting in the systems and now we're building the team, we've gotten a lot cleaner about our offer and our framework so it makes more sense. Ultimately, we have created a product and a system that we call the power paradigm, and that is what we offer to people.

We offer for you to live your life from your power. And so the Be Print is the process that actually creates your power paradigm, and it's a system, it's a physical product and process with the workbook and we walk you through those exercises, and then we support you with coaching. And the way we offer that is you can do it yourself, so you can DIY it, and that has its entry level price point if you just want a taste of it, but then we also offer coaching programs because a lot of our clients are like, I ain't going to do it myself.

Rachel: Exactly, like, we already know.

Radiah: Yeah. Just put me in the program so we can workshop it and I can get the support I need. And there's a short and a long term – we have a 60 day for people who just really want to make that crisp decision. Like we have a lot of corporate clients, executives, and professional women who need to make a major decision. So that program is called Lead or Leave. You're either going to step up and get what you're there for, or you're going to move on and create something new, but at the end of that 60 days, you're going to have what you want.

And so that is like, the short term. And then if you want the coaching program but you want a longer term, we have a 12-month program that's called Own It, and that's really for women who want to be trained and master this energy and this intention scale so that they can apply it in multiple areas of their life over a year's period of time.

Rachel: I love that.

Radiah: And like I said, we have the corporate programs that we offer, the workshops and executive coaching through corporations. A lot of women come to us through their companies and then you can certify in our programs. So we have five certified trainers that work with us at certain corporate clients, or use this in their own businesses, the intention coaching certification.

Rachel: I love it. I love it. And one of the things I love about you kind of just talking about your results and some of the shifts that you've gone through and having a dip and then working your way back up, the moves that you're making are playing the long game. And I think sometimes it looks crazy like Noah looked crazy when he was building an ark and there was no water. You know what I mean? And sometimes it looks like that.

I feel the same way too because right now I'm putting the pieces in place for a 10-million-dollar business, but I'm not anywhere near 10 million dollars yet. But I'm putting those pieces in place. And so to some of our friends, they're like oh, you're spending too much money on your team or oh, you don't need to do that and it's like, no I don't need to. If I was intending to stay right where I'm at, then I would keep things right the way they are. But if I want to continue to grow, I have to be looking to the future and building the pieces for the future that I want to have, and not just what I've got right now.

And you see that and you get that, and I think that is so powerful, and that is really how we want to be going about scaling our businesses. Putting those pieces in place and playing the long game, making long-term decisions, not just what's going to solve a problem right now. Sometimes we've got to do that. Sometimes we've got to send some emails, we're going to do a webinar, we're going to get this money in the door because we just need the money in the door. But we know that like, most of our decisions are going to be what is going to serve us in 12 months. How is this going to be life-changing in two years?

And think that way, I think that is so important, and I see so many entrepreneurs just like, they can't get past their nose. They're always thinking about today, tomorrow, yesterday, and that's it. And you've got to start thinking about six months from now, 12 months from now, two years from now, what is going to be happening. Start setting those intentions and taking actions towards those goals. So I love that you do that.

Radiah: I'm completely okay with looking crazy. I've been looking crazy for so long. Yeah, call me crazy, I'm good. I've been called worse so let's go. You can call me crazy when I'm vacationing here or when I'm chilling here or at 10am at my massage appointment. Whatever it is because this is the life that affords us that kind of freedom and that kind of experience. So I'm committed to it and I'm good with being called crazy.

And as a visionary, I'm used to that because I see things that people don’t always see, and so making those kind of choices consistently for the long game, it's exactly right. It's like you said, we can go out and put a campaign in together and do a launch and move some dollars, but we're not going to want to keep doing that. We've got to make a shift to where now, that's an automated process. Now that's happening beyond just our will. It's like moving from that striving to that seeking and surrendering, and that's where we are as a business.

We're moving into that – from seeking to surrendering as a business is where I'd say we are, and that's magic because we can see it happening. There's not a doubt. We've had to move through a lot of doubt like, can we really do this? The market is really saturated. We're this company of black women who are not necessarily known – although we are the most effective, efficient, and high performing people on the planet if you ask me. When you look you say oh, that's Tony Robbins and Brendon Burchard. You think certain people are in that camp.

But no, let me tell you, we got some tricks up our sleeves about how people can be efficient and effective beyond the average person. So that's a new space and we question like, will people acknowledge and recognize our prowess in that area to really – you want massive results, we're the women that you want to work with. Can we claim that space? And now we're like, oh yeah, it's waiting for us.

Rachel: That's right. It's just a decision. Are we going to is really the question. And just having that conviction and understanding how great your stuff is and I think sometimes that's why action is so important. You have to get out there and start seeing results. You have to start working with people. When I first started working with my first coaching client, did I know for sure that I could help her make more money? I was pretty sure, but I wasn't certain, and then I worked with her and she had amazing results. And I'm like, okay, awesome. Let's do this again now with a group.

Okay great, they got great results. Okay now let's do this again in this setting. And you just keep testing and tweaking, and that's – you build that over time as well. But I think that's what helps to build up that confidence that you're like listen, my shit's the bomb and Tony, move over, get out the way, make room because Radiah is coming, okay?

Radiah: Exactly. And I'm excited because one of the other benefits is that there's a small circle of us in certain places, c-suites and executive levels. So it's one of those things where we've had clients text us like, I got a seven-figure bonus because of the work that I've done with you and I'm like, damn. That's rare air people are breathing and it's phenomenal. That's where you go okay, yeah, we make a difference and we make an impact. This is our space to claim.

Rachel: I love it. I love it so much. Okay, so two more quick questions. When you were thinking about investing in Glow or investing in your business, investing in business strategy, I know that that is a struggle for so many women, and I know you talk to women all the time who are also struggling with the investment question. Do I invest in myself? Do I invest in coaching? What was one of your objections? If you were to finish this sentence, I almost didn't join because, what would that be for you?

Radiah: Because I wasn't sure I was going to get the result. and you remember when we first talked, I was like, listen, I don’t need a community, I just need these strategies. I got friends, I got a team. We just need these strategies because I was so focused on I've got to get these results. And so my question was always like, is this really going to be the information that I had a previous experience where I'd invested a significant amount in a coach for business coaching and it was a lot of what felt like life coaching but not even enough to get me to shift to make the business happen.

So what really attracted me to MDB was you had a model for what it takes to create a successful business, and it made sense, and it was clear and it was straight forward and it was no question. So then it was just up to me. Like okay, I'm not questioning whether she has what I need to be able to produce the results. Now it's just me, and I know about it. So after that I was like okay, well yeah, if I've got everything I need, then I can make this happen.

Rachel: Yes, I love that and I think that's so important to talk through kind of how we think about these things and how we make these decisions because think about it. If somebody's on the cusp of making a decision to work with you, that could mean that they wind up in the c-suite of a major Fortune 500 corporation where now they're able to bring other women of color, other people of color into that c-suite or into that business. The impact that they potentially have is massive. So when you start to think about the impact of your work, that is what gets me out of bed every morning.

Radiah: I'm amazed at my clients. I don't always think about it for myself, but for our clients, and I ask them at times you know, like why are you doing this thing? Because they're really doing massive things. And it differs. It's not just about being in the c-suite. A lot of our clients are in education and they have visions for how they can bring black children through the educational system successfully and how they can open channels for STEM and things like that.

And I ask them all the time like, what's driving you to do this? And a lot of times they say because I want to show other people, all people, not even just other black people, but I want to show all people that we belong here, that we can do this, that we are – we deserve to be here, and I want to show them a model that they can follow so that they can be right here with me, whether that's anything from an educational program like I said, or I don't have to kill myself to succeed at the highest level. I can do that and be a model of a woman who takes care of herself and who is connected with her family and does things in the community and things like that.

Rachel: Yes. So powerful. I love it. If you were to recommend MDB to somebody, who would it be? Who do you think it's a good fit for?

Radiah: The first thing I'd say is someone who's ready to have the result that they've been striving for. Like, if you really are ready to take the action and move into the result, you're not thinking about it, you're not theorizing and wishing, but you're like, it's time. And I think that's what it was for me. I had come to the point of making the choice, yes, this is going to happen. So I'd recommend it to someone who is willing to put in the work, and to me it's not hard work. It's more of listening and following. Like, I do what Rachel tells me to do. And the one time I didn't, it cost me a whole lot of money.

But it's everything you need and the support. Someone who also wants the support and needs a community of women who are committed to the same level of goal and have the same level of energy. Like I said, when I started, I was like, I don't need a community, but that has been one of the most impactful things in the program. Being able to reach out in touch and have people reach out to me to stay in the journey. And part of the reason why I recommitted to MDB was because I said these are the women I want to make a million with.

Rachel: I love it. Yes. And I can't wait. That is happening. I love it. Love it so much. Thank you so much for being here Radiah. Tell everybody where they can learn more about you.

Radiah: Yes, thank you for having me. I am at Evók Life on Instagram or Facebook. We're @theevokexpereince. Join our Facebook group there. We have a good time there. My website is evoklife.com and yeah, that's it. That's pretty much where we roll.

Rachel: Awesome. Go check out Radiah and her amazing work. As you can see, it's all about stepping into who you really need to be and being more instead of just doing and checking things off of a list, so you should definitely check her out and join her free Facebook group, and we'll link all of that up in the show notes. Thank you again Radiah.

Radiah: Thank you Rachel.